Editorial features
As an early music enthusiast, I would like to see some editorial features added to MuseScore. Perhaps they are already there, but I could not find them. These features include:
1. a footnote field, that would appear on the first page and could be used to name the source of the piece and credits for encoding and editing.
2. The capability of putting brackets around a note, and numbered editorial footnotes to explain errors or their correction.
3. A general annotation text field that could supply additional random data about a piece, this data not necessarily appearing in the printed copy but useful for database purposes.
4. I have not yet been involved in working with mensural notation in MuseScore, so I don't know if these are already implemented, but I would like to be able to use cautionary accidentals (beside the notes) and editorial accidentals (above the notes).
Comments
1) How would you see this differing from the existing Footer (Style / General / Header, Footer, Numbers) or a text frame?
2) brackets are found on the noteheads palette, just select one or more notes then double click the brackets.
3) File / Info provides this
4) cautionary accidentals can be added from the Accidentals palette or via the toolbar, editorial accents can be added from the Symbols palette (press "Z" to display)
In reply to 1) How would you see this by Marc Sabatella
Hi, Marc, and thanks. I am pretty new to all this, so please bear with me.
1. I see you have a footer field, useful for page numbers, etc. I would want an additional footnote field that would appear at the bottom of the first page only, and page numbers would start at the bottom of p. 2ff. It looks to me, at first blush, as though it is not possible to have two separate footers, one as a footnote and the other as a page number. I suppose I could create a text field and use that as a footnote, but that would seem unnecessarily cumbersome.
2. Brackets do not seem to be implemented well on tab notes.
3. File/info would work. I would add my own field names. Can I subtract existing field names that I don't use, and can I save that format for future use?
Also, is the info field readily accessible, e.g., by a command line option or by having an accessible location within the museScore file? Actually, since it is a musicxml file that is being created, it should be.
I have a website with 17,000 or so lute tablature files (7000 or so pieces), and I would like to automate the process of collecting the information so I can update my database with a single command. To convert all these to museScore, I would have to save them as musicXml files, input them into museScore, probably do some tweaking, and then write them out to museScore, all without losing any information. Oh, also, is there a command line option to wrote a musescore file out to a printer or to midi? I am looking at kind of a daunting task, and I want to make sure museScore can do everything I want it to do before embarking on that task.
In reply to Hi, Marc, and thanks. I am by sgerbode
1) not sure what's so cumbersome about creating a text frame - that's what they are for
2) feel free to file a bug report / feature request in the issue tracker with sample score and steps to reproduce the problem you are seeing
3) i don't think you can remove ones you don't use, not sure why that would matter? as for saving for the future, I don't know if templates do this by default, but even if not, you could simply save a score and load it then do save as to generate other scores.
command line options are documented here: https://musescore.org/en/node/38301
In reply to 1) not sure what's so by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the reply, Marc. I appreciate your thoughts.
1. I know one can add a text frame, and that would certainly work. But every file I create has, for my purposes, to have a footnote, and it would be better if “footnote” were a regular feature, as footnotes are very common, especially in early music editions. Creating a new text field for a footnote every time I create a new piece would, indeed, be overly time consuming for me. The other problem I have is that I would like to be able to use a perl or python script to find the footnote field in the mscx file, and as there are several text fields denoted by , it would be somewhat of a challenge to find the footnote. I would rather look for a field called … or some such. I mine the footnote field for info about the piece, such as publisher, document, date, page or folio number, encoder, and editor. This info appears in print but also is accessible for database purposes.
2. Bracketing problem. I click on a tab note to highlight it ( the e in bar 2, in the below example) , then go to Palettes/Note Heads and double-click on (). Result:
![king_test.png]( "king_test.png")
Also, I do not see actual brackets [] as an option, only parens (). I need brackets.
3. I suppose I could edit the mscx I use as a template and make the changes there, then save it under some appropriate name in the templates directory. Can one create an arbitrary template, put it in the templates directory, and then read it in from the “Create new score” dialog box?
4. The command line options will work perfectly for my purposes.
In reply to Thanks for the reply, Marc. I by sgerbode
I don't understand. Creating a frame takes two seconds, a fraction of the time it takes to actual enter the text. How could it possibly be a significant factor?
Square brackets can be created as normal text.
Templates do indeed work as simply as you just said - any score in that folder is treated as a template and available in the create new score wizard.
In reply to Thanks for the reply, Marc. I by sgerbode
2. Bracketing:
The result of the image in a previous message is a known issue, specific to Emmentaler font. https://musescore.org/fr/node/75316
Alternatively, you may choose Bravura or Gonville fonts in : Style -> General -> Musical symbols font: so, Bravura or Gonville, to obtain a good result. It's the more faster.
Or, as said, by regular text. It is preferable, for re-use, to drag and drop these brackets in a palette, with Ctrl + Shift kept pressed.
Check if you have first created a workspace ('+' sign, bottom page, below the Palettes) and activate the edition (right-click on a palette name -> Tick 'Enable Editing')
Result: according to your wish:
![bracket.jpg]( "bracket.jpg")
- First: Bravura font: (a)
- Second: (with Emmentaler, or Bravura etc.): brackets regular text : [a]
In reply to 2. Bracketing: The result of by cadiz1
Using Bravura worked fine, with the parentheses.
To try to use brackets, I created a new workspace, editing enabled. Created a text frame. Made bracket inside that text frame, used ctrl+shift and dragged the bracket into an empty box in "Note Heads" palette, but the result was a bracket that was not aligned properly around the indicated note, so obviously I did it wrong. Where do you make the bracket you then drag into Note Heads? If not in a text frame, then where? Thanks!
In reply to Using Bravura worked fine, by sgerbode
The text frame is nothing to see here.
To create these brackets: select a note -> Ctrl + T -> Add '['
Do the same thing with another note, and add ']'
First: place both brackets in a palette (eg Note Heads) for reuse.
Next: To adjust the alignment of the left and right brackets with a note:
Select the note -> Double-click on the left bracket in the palette -> move this sign with the mouse, but more recommended and more accurate with the arrows Up / Down, Left / Right. Easy, and fairly fast.
Repeat for the right bracket. With practice, it saves time, but it is of course slower than adding the parentheses (Bravura), since you need to do two operations, then the alignment.
But it has not always necessarily using these brackets to each score? Of course, the possibility of using brackets (pre-installed in a palette, so like parentheses) would probably not useless?
In reply to The text frame is nothing to by cadiz1
Well, I have improved the way to add square brackets with the staff text :) Needless to add a left bracket, then a right bracket. We can do it all at the same time of course: it was enough to think about it!
So: Ctrl + T (eg) -> Add '[' -> Add two or three spaces, with the space bar -> Add ']'
These brackets are one now, and after having deposited in the palette, they can be reused easily:
- Select a note -> Double-click in the palette -> and immediately, while the brackets are selected (highlighted), use the arrow keys Down (certainly)/Up/ Left-Right, for alignment.
If one wants to change the alignment later, a single click before using the arrow keys is sufficient.
![brackets.jpg]( "brackets.jpg")
Image below, with brackets with two spaces and three spaces: can be useful depending the font size and / or the notes-letters form.
In reply to Well, I have improved the way by cadiz1
That's great, but I am having problems moving the bracket or brackets to the blank space in my note-head palette. I can create and move the brackets, but can't install them for reuse in the palette. I did the step of creating a custom workspace and have been using that workspace, so that isn't the issue. Do I need some special key combination other than simple drag and drop to do this?
In reply to That's great, but I am having by sgerbode
Are you sure you have activated the palettes editing ? If not, you must tick 'Enable editing'. Like this:
![Enable Editing.jpg]( "Enable Editing.jpg")
If so, the procedure is as follows:
1) Press Ctrl + Shift (hold always)
2) With the mouse, drag the brackets in a palette. As it goes above a palette cell, a '+' appears
3) Release (mouse), that's all.
In reply to Are you sure you have by cadiz1
OK. That worked. Thanks!
In reply to Using Bravura worked fine, by sgerbode
In case it isn't clear: text frames and staff tect are two completely different things. Staff text (Ctrl+T, or added via Text palette) is attached and positioned relative to a particular note or rest. A text frame (added from Frames palette) is placed between two systems and is intended for larger blocks of text that need to appear outside the normal flow of the music.
In reply to Thanks for the reply, Marc. I by sgerbode
Yes, templates are the way forward here.
I have just completed an arrangement of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Sorcerer for two synthesisers, in which I needed certain text information to be on each number, so the first thing I did was create a template with the required instrumentation and text frames containing the text which was to be displayed at the top of each score.
Once saved to the Templates folder I could start arranging each piece by clicking on it in the Create Score dialogue each time.
For editorial accidentals, you may look at (more or less) any of my score, available here for free downloading in PDF, MuseScore and MXML format (be aware that the MuseScore format may refer to older version than 2.0).
I use regular accidentals, making them small and positioning them above. I have a couple of 2.0 plug-ins to automate size and placement and I can provide them.
In reply to For editorial accidentals, by Miwarre
Your editorial accidentals are actually perfect!
In reply to Your editorial accidentals by sgerbode
Thank for the appreciation! I was trying to saying that, by looking at the MuseScore engraving files of those scores, you may see how the editorial accidentals are made and decide if this way of working fits your requirements.
In reply to For editorial accidentals, by Miwarre
Hi Miwarre, your solution for "footnotes" is really very clever.
But in editions of manuscripts with lute tablature - the same probably applies in keyboard manuscripts -, there are many different situations: missing flag, wrong flag, wrong note in a chord, missing note in a chord (compared to another source, which source etc.) and this sums up very fastly in a big list of different remarks, if you want to give precise remarks (changed note editorially, because of ms nr .... etc.)
Therefore I still would be happy, if there could be found a solution with an automatic way of treating footnotes.
Probably it would be possible to do that manually, but if you think, that these texts then should always be placed on the same page as the numbers; and that the numbers should be updated if a new footnote is added or deleted, it would be really a big help. That helps to use them while transcribing the music and also later.